Data for: Fear before food: Scale-dependence in elk habitat selection

Habitat selection is a critical aspect of a species' ecology requiring complex decision-making that is both hierarchical and scale-dependent, since factors that influence selection may be nested or unequal across scales. Elk (Cervus canadensis) ranged widely across diverse habitats in North America prior to European settlement and subsequent eastern extirpation. Most habitat studies have occurred within their contemporary western range, even after eastern elk reintroductions began. As habitat selection can vary by geographic location, available cover, season, and diel period, it is important to understand how a non-migratory, reintroduced population in northern Wisconsin, USA is limited by the lack of variation in topography, elevation, and vegetation. We tested scale-dependent habitat selection on 79 adult elk from 2017–2020. We used resource selection functions across both temporal and spatial scales to understand differences in selection of topographic and environmental features. We found that selection varied both spatially and temporally and elk selected areas with the greatest potential to influence fitness at larger scales (i.e., landscape scale), meaning elk selected areas closer to escape cover and further from "risky" features (e.g., wolf territory centers, county roads and highways). We found stronger avoidance to wolf territory centers during spring, suggesting elk were selecting safer habitats during calving season. We found elk selected habitats with less canopy cover across both spatial scales and all seasons, suggesting that elk selected these areas for better access to forage as forest stands in early seral stages have greater nutritional value and forage biomass than closed-canopy forests and direct solar radiation to provide warmth in the cooler seasons. This study highlights how processes at different spatial and temporal scales influence species' decision-making. It provides insight into the complexity of making informed decisions in which an individual is responding to their immediate environment while simultaneously making decisions in the context of the larger landscape. Scale-dependent behavior is crucial to understand within specific geographic regions as these decisions scale up to influence population dynamics.Funding provided by: Wisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100009823Award Number